Shinigami's Redemption
by Lacuna Everspring
Summary: Duo goes out for a walk after having a disagreement with Heero. But things go downhill fast when he's abducted by someone the pilot's all know acting out of character. When the boys realize Duo is missing, they go out to look for him yet all is found is the roughly hacked off braid laying in the woods. Will they discover what has happened to their friend before it's too late?


AN - I don't own em, I'm just temporarily appropriating them without permission ;) I might give them back...

**Shinigami's Redemption**

_Part One_

Duo stretched out upon his stomach on his bed, as he flicked through the worn pages of an old manga that he had found under his bed that morning. As his eyes glanced over the pages, he absently nibbled on the end of his braid, a habit that he had unknowingly picked up as of late.

The only other noise in the room, besides from Duo's page turning and occasional snickering at something he read; was the sound of the clacking of the keys on Heero's laptop, as the latter was busy doing whatever he did on that thrice-damned machine.

Duo snickered again, he just found the part in the manga when the main character finally finds out that his best friend was actually a closet cross-dresser. Duo could just imagine what it would be like to be in that situation himself, as he gazed thoughtfully up at Heero. Seeing Heero in a dress would actually be quite an amusing sight... he thought as a grin suddenly spread across his heart-shaped face.

Noticing that he was the object of his lovers' attention, Heero looked up from his computer screen and glared at the braided pilot.

"What?" He asked, tersely, not really liking the way that Duo was looking at him.

Duo's eyes widened as he realized that Heero has noticed his intensly he'd been watching him, and his grin widened.

"Nothin', nothing at all, Hee-koi." Duo replied, blinking innocently with his huge violet eyes.

Heero snorted, and turned back to his computer, once again ignoring the Shinigami pilot.

Duo yawned, utterly bored. He had too much energy and nothing to do. He grinned evilly. There was *one* thing that he could think of off hand that he could do to work off some access energy. Heh...

"Heero?" Duo asked, getting up and slowly walking over to Heero's side.

"..."

"Whatcha doing?"

"..."

Duo sighed. "Heero?!"

"What?" Heero finally answering, sounding irritated.

"I'm bored. I was wondering if you could help me find something to do." Duo asked, in a husky tone of voice, as he leaned over and wrapped his arms loosely around Heero's shoulders. Heero tensed, and stopped typing.

"So?" He inquired, as he lightly brushed Heero's cheek with his lips.

Heero suddenly shrugged him off. "Go for a walk." He growled, returning to typing.

Duo sighed, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "Whatever!"

He snatched up his black windbreaker and cap, and strode out the door, chin raised in indignance, as he loudly shut the door behind him.

"Baka." Heero muttered, as he shook his head as he continued to work away at his computer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night outside was cool, not cold, just chilly enough to require a jacket. Duo walked quietly up the street, leading away from the small safehouse that all of the pilots were staying at.

Duo pulled his cap down lower over his eyes as he trudged on, heading toward the forest that was and the far end of the street. It was a deep, natural forest that had been pretty much left alone when the city had started building the apartments in this neighbourhood. Duo guessed that it was around twenty kilometers deep, going to the ocean on the far side.

Since the pilots had been staying there for the last week and a half, Duo and gone several times into the woods, enjoying the peaceful serenity of the place, the simpleness of the forest where he wasn't any longer a Gundam pilot, and he could pretend that he was a normal teenager, well, as normal as he could get. But as soon as he left the forest, he was back to being the same old Duo. It was an illusion that he cherished for some reason.

The cool, late night breeze rustled his hip-length chestnut braid, in the dim moonlit night. After about half an hour of thoughtful silence, Duo raised his eyes and found himself at the waterside. The full moon reflecting eerily off of the unusually calm waters of the ocean.

The reflection of the moon on the glassy waters entranced him, captivating him to nature's simplistic beauty.

It was the simple things like this that was important to him, even when his life got really screwed up, there were some things that always stayed the same.

Like recently with Heero, Duo was getting upset. True, that both him and the stoic Wing pilot had been lovers for about seven months now, recently, something had gone wrong, and Duo was at a loss at what had happened.

Sure, their sexlife was great, it alway had been, but that wasn't it. It was something else, Duo wasn't sure if Heero was mad at him, or something. But as of late, Heero had been withdrawing deeper into his work upon the computer, and barely acknowledging Duo's presence. And it hurt, not really on the physical level, but more on the emotional level. Tonight was just one example of that withdrawl. If Duo had done that several weeks ago, Heero would have temporarily shoved aside his work and gone along with whatever Duo had in mind, but not recently...

It all seemed to start at the time when Duo had actually come out and told Heero that he loved him, with all of his heart. What had surprised Duo the most, was that Heero had hesitatingly told him that he loved Duo in return. Heero's exact words were:

"Ai shiteru, always and forever, Duo. I mean it."

Duo smiled faintly at the memory. Forever. One single word made Duo's world ever so full of happiness, and that happiness seemed to silence all of the demon's haunting him from his painful past. Duo opened his amethyst eyes and smiled into the starlit sky, more at peace with himself then he had been in a long time.

All of a sudden, his peaceful mood was shattered as he heard a stick snap loudly behind him, somewhere in the bushes. Instantly, his senses were alert, scanning the area for any possible threats.

"Whose there?" He called, reason demanding that he stay silent, but since when had he ever been one to listen to reason? Let alone his own?

"Someone who is going to make sure you don't cause them anymore trouble." A masculine voice replied, from somewhere to his left, still in the forest's cover, Duo couldn't see him, wherever he was.

"Wha-?!" He exclaimed suddenly as he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder, he craned his head slightly and saw a short, stubby needle protruding from his shoulder. A tranquilizer dart, he presumed in distress.

"Oh what the Hell-?" He started, as his vision began to waver, darkness seeping in around the edges of his eyesight.

The voice laughed, obviously thinking that his reaction was rather amusing. The man came warily out of the forest, placing the tranquilizer gun back into his belt.

Through his wavering vision, the man looked to be around six feet tall, a lot taller then he was. He looked to be muscular, well-built.

Duo tried to fight the drug. He didn't think he was having very much success. When the man came closer, Duo half-lunged at the man slammed into the guy's shoulder, causing the bigger man to be unbalanced.

Out of the corner of his eye, Duo saw something silver glint in the pale moonlight. It was then that he realized that the man had pulled out a knife. Something screamed at him, telling him to try to get away, but his body wouldn't listen, his reactions were sluggish. Probably a result of whatever the drug he had been given.

After the man recovered his balance, and Duo was still staggering, the man grabbed him from behind by the waist, pinning his arms underneath his bulky grasp. With an odd twist, Duo suddenly found himself pinned to the ground, water in his face. He cracked his eyes open and saw that he was partially in the water, the other man pinning the smaller teen firmly against the ground.

Duo tried to struggle, but he involuntarily cried out as his head was roughly pulled back, by his braid. When Duo saw the knife glitter again, and the hand on his braid strengthen, he was suddenly filled with a deep horror, realizing what the man was going to do.

"No! Onegai, don't! Yamete!" Duo pleaded, not bothering to hide the terror in his voice.

The man on top of him snickered. "I'm only doing what I was told." he replied, amused.

"And what was that?" He asked, deciding that now was definately *not* the time to get flippant.

"Relena-sama told me to capture you, she said she didn't care how. But I was to leave only one clue for your friend's." He paused, lightly stroking Duo's cheek. Duo tried to shrink away from the touch. The man snickered again. Duo firmly decided that he *did not* like that laugh.

The hair... The bastard was going to cut his hair and then leave no other traces of the Deathscythe pilot's presence. That would certainly get the other pilot's attention, and out for blood.

But what did Relena have to do with all this? It didn't make sense.

Suddenly, his head started jerking, that Duo cried out when he realized that the guy had started to cut off his hair. The tears involuntarily began spilling out his eyes, as Duo quietly whimpered.

A moment later, Duo found his face in water again, he coughed loudly as strong arms roughly out of the water, and lifting him into the air as if he weighed nothing at all.

"Now, it's time to go." A new voice replied. It was a female voice...it sounded so familiar...

Relena stepped out of the cover of the trees and into the clearing.

"Good work, Ivan." She replied, smirking as she stepped up to Duo, and lifted his chin so that his eyes met hers.

"Why, hello Duo. How are you doing tonight?" She asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Something wasn't right. This girl wasn't acting like the Relena that he knew, everythng within him was screaming that everything about her was wrong about her except for her body. Her body language was way off, and this was *not* the way he'd ever seen her act before.

"K'so, Relena! Why!?" He asked, his voice cracking slightly with resignation, as the corners of his vision started to go dark. Obviously, whatever the drug was, it was meant to keep him awake long enough for him to feel the horror of having his hair cut off and to keep him from fighting back too much.

Her smile widened. "Why, you're in the way, dear Duo. You have something that I want, and I can't have it until you're out of the way, permanently." She answered, tilting her head slightly, as if the answer itself was obvious.

"And what would that be?" He croaked, blinking, trying to remain conscious.

"Why Heero, of course." She laughed, quite pleased with herself.

Relena's laughter was the last thing her heard before Duo lost consciousness.

~*OWARI*~  
~*Part One*~


End file.
